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The 2024 fall advocacy season at ���㽶��Ƶ brought together PA student and faculty leaders from around the country to champion important causes and drive meaningful change for PA education and the health workforce. Through two separate events, the Student Health Policy Fellowship and the Education Forum Hill Day, hundreds of supporters received policy and advocacy training, networked with other advocates, and advanced the interests of PA education with their elected officials in Congress.  

In September, ���㽶��Ƶ hosted the Student Health Policy Fellowship, which began with a two-day virtual speaker series and concluded with 20 fellows engaging in virtual meetings with their House and Senate offices. 

During the workshop, Fellows heard from a range of speakers related to ���㽶��Ƶ’s advocacy agenda, including: 

• AAPA Vice President of Federal Advocacy Tate Heuer who discussed AAPA’s advocacy for solutions to federal issues affecting PAs at the practice level  

• AAPA’s Director of State Advocacy and Outreach Meghan Pudeler who discussed the importance of PAs’ being active in AAPA constituent organizations and engaging in state-level advocacy throughout their careers.  

• 2023 ���㽶��Ƶ Student Health Policy Fellow Lamiyah Rajai who discussed best practices for completing a community-based advocacy project.  

After presentations focused on policy, the workshop shifted to education on effective advocacy and featured exceptional PA faculty leaders including:

• Pangela Dawson, Program Director for the Morehouse School of Medicine PA program, who discussed her role as a PA representative on HRSA’s Advisory Committee on Training in Primary Care Medicine and Dentistry (ACTPCMD) 

• Melissa Rodriguez, who detailed her involvement with the Association of PAs in Obstetrics and Gynecology (APAOG) and the Florida Academy of PAs to inspire fellows to stay involved in advocacy throughout their careers. 

• Edward Williams, Program Director for the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences PA Program, who shared his personal experience with leadership, health policy, and advocacy as chair of ���㽶��Ƶ’s Government Relations Steering Committee.  

Fellows also received tips from staff members at Polsinelli, LLC, one of ���㽶��Ƶ’s long-standing advocacy partners, on how to have a successful meeting on Capitol Hill. ���㽶��Ƶ CEO Sara Fletcher, PhD, also provided an update on the association’s current work and answered questions from fellows on key issues in PA education.  

On the final day of the fellowship event, the Fellows put their learning into practice by taking part in advocacy meetings with their elected representatives’ offices in support of H.R. 6077, which would grant access to subsidized Stafford loans for PA and other graduate students for the first time since 2012, thereby reducing the amount that students will owe on the loan in interest. They also spoke out against S. 1968, the GOAL Act, which eliminates the Grad PLUS loan program entirely and imposes new loan limits below the cost of attendance for many PA programs, increasing education costs for PA students. 

Education Forum Hill Day Organizes more than 100 Congressional Meetings 

With the 2024 Forum in Washington, D.C. ���㽶��Ƶ took the opportunity to host the Education Forum Hill Day a large-scale advocacy effort involving PA faculty and student visits to Congressional offices Capitol Hill.  

After training sessions held ahead of the Forum’s opening day, 150 PA students and faculty fanned out across Capitol Hill to engage in 113 congressional meetings that spanning 36 different state delegations. 

The meetings focused on advocating for two key bills, S.4169, the Primary Care Team Education Centers Act, and H.R.8738, The Rural Health Preceptor Tax Fairness Act, both of which help increase access to clinical training opportunities. They also focused on advocating for reauthorizing the National Health Service Corps (NHSC) for the long term and increasing its mandatory funding level to maximize the NHSC’s reach.  

If you were unable to attend the 2024 ���㽶��Ƶ Education Forum Hill Day, but are interested in supporting these legislative efforts, please visit and join our congressional email campaigns supporting the Primary Care Team Education Centers Act and a federal tax incentive for rural health preceptors.  

Thank you to all who volunteered their time and effort in making the 2024 Student Health Policy Fellowship and Education Forum Hill Day a true success. Questions about any of the legislation mentioned or other future advocacy opportunities should be directed to Catherine Majewski at cmajewski@paeaonline.org.